Critical Qualitative Research Methodologies

The emergence of critical geography in the late 1980s and early 1990s (Blomley 2006; Neely and Samura 2011) marked a turn not only in the study of human geography but also in the ways that scholars, activists, and community members across fields of study theorize and engage notions of space and place. Scholars across fields grappled with questions of identity, power, globalization, economic inequality, poverty, processes of decolonization, neocolonialism, and struggles for social change. Geographers were no different. In fact, geography became a key site for asking how material and social worlds were enmeshed in oppressive systems, and struggles for justice, via theories of space. Geographers and theorists such as

Qualitative research has become an indispensable methodological approach in the health and social sciences, offering profound insights into human experiences, behaviors, and social processes that are otherwise difficult to quantify. This review critically examines key issues of concern in the conduct and evaluation of qualitative research, particularly within healthcare settings. Central to this discussion are the parallel constructs used to establish methodological trustworthiness—credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability—which serve as qualitative analogs to the quantitative standards of internal validity, external validity, reliability, and objectivity. The paper explores practical mechanisms such as triangulation, thick description, audit trails, and peer examination that enhance the rigor of qualitative inquiry while addressing potential biases including the Hawthorne effect, observer-expectancy, and artificial scenario distortion.
Furthermore, the clinical relevance of qualitative research is underscored, emphasizing its role in hypothesis generation, patient-centered care, and systems improvement. The integration of qualitative methods within interprofessional healthcare teams reveals their utility in decoding complex interpersonal and organizational dynamics. From exploring physician-patient relationships to improving team communication and workflow, qualitative approaches provide invaluable frameworks for enhancing health outcomes, refining policy, and promoting equity. The paper concludes by advocating for greater epistemological reflexivity, methodological transparency, and the institutional integration of qualitative practices in healthcare education, training, and quality improvement initiatives.

In the Spring of 2021, five Latine high school students gathered over Zoom to discuss experiences of confianza (trust) and desconfianza (distrust) with a team of researchers. Via multimodal testimonios, students built a community of confianza and convivencia (togetherness). Students identified this process as healing and offered suggestions on how to address desconfianza in school spaces and how to leverage confianza, creating a process by which to imagine schools de confianza. This research illustrates the potential of community building characterized by trust and belonging and oriented toward activism. This opportunity can support students to recontextualize their past experiences, feel validated in their experiences, and feel a sense of belonging.

This study is a review of educational scholarship that has utilized testimonio
as a methodological approach. We begin with a brief overview of
testimonio, highlighting its discursive subversions that align with longstanding
traditions of storytelling within Communities of Color, and in
critical race storytelling. We then describe how testimonio is an important
tool within a broader Critical Race Feminista Methodology—a space of
theorizing humanizing, anti-colonial methodological approaches that disrupt
structural oppression and are guided by “a nostalgia for wholeness”
(Delgado Bernal, Pérez Huber, & Malagon, 2019). Testimonio as a Critical
Race Feminista Methodology allows for an interweaving of Chicana feminist
and critical race epistemological and theoretical tools with qualitative
research methods to cultivate methodological space for convivencia,
critical reflection, collective knowledge production, and healing. Through
this literature review, we see how this methodology brings mutual validation,
shared humanity, and imperatives of social justice to the fore,
shifting our research praxis from one that reproduces the colonial project,
to one that seeks to transform and lead to collective well-being.

This article asks whether "sharenting" (sharing representations of one's parenting or children online) is a form of digital self-representation. Drawing on interviews with 17 parent bloggers, we explore how parents define the borders of their digital selves and justify what is their "story to tell." We find that bloggers grapple with profound ethical dilemmas, as representing their identities as parents inevitably makes public aspects of their children's lives, introducing risks that they are, paradoxically, responsible for safeguarding against. Parents thus evaluate what to share by juggling multiple obligations-to themselves, their children in the present and imagined into the future, and to their physical and virtual communities. The digital practices of representing the relational self are impeded more than eased by the individualistic notion of identity instantiated by digital platforms, thereby intensifying the ambivalence of both parents and the wider society in judging emerging genres of blogging the self.

This article explores how five international colleagues from the USA, Canada, China, and Japan use self-study methodologies and online journaling to systematically examine the tensions surrounding the lived experiences of feminist academics in diverse global contexts. It draws from the theoretical foundations of critical qualitative inquiry, self-study, feminist epistemologies, and fiction as research. The main research questions guiding the study are: what is the role of self-study and journaling in an international research collective?, how can contemporary literature inform a self-study about the intersection of gender and career?, and in what ways does journaling with international partners support personal and professional development of multicultural teacher educators?. For 6 months, the authors explored these questions with one another in an interactive online journal. Collaborative analysis of the journal entries produced three major themes: fiction as self-study, scholarship as hope, and scholarship as freedom. The article concludes with the authors' personal views on the importance of online journaling and self-study among educational researchers who are interested in finding tools and structures for navigating the contemporary women's movement within academia.

This paper asks the question: do people with different levels of research productivity and identification as a researcher think of research differently? It discusses a study that differentiated levels of research productivity among English and Australian academics working in research-intensive environments in three broad discipline areas: science, engineering and technology; social science and humanities; and medicine and health sciences. The paper explores the different conceptions of research held by these academics in terms of their levels of research productivity, their levels of research training, whether they considered themselves an active researcher and a member of a research team, and their disciplinary differences.

Specialized literature shows that counseling and guidance represents an interdisciplinary profession, practiced differently in various Latin American countries. Likewise, counseling and guidance is understood as being a multicontextual and politically worthy profession that is connected to the personal, socioeconomic, cultural, and collective development of people and their countries. In this context, one of the most critical current issues that the profession is facing is related to the pedagogical issues of training counseling and guidance practitioners in undergraduate programs. This article describes the pedagogical dimensions of training programs at the University of Zulia, Venezuela. Résumé. Une perspective pédagogique de la formation des professionnels du conseil et de l'orientation : Expériences d'un programme universitaire d'Amérique Latine. La littérature spécialisée démontre que le conseil en orientation représente une profession interdisciplinaire, pratiquée différemment dans de nombreux pays latino-américains. Par ailleurs, le conseil en orientation est compris comme une profession multicontextuelle et d'intérêt public, connectée au développement personnel, socioéconomique, culturel et collectif des individus et de leurs pays. Dans ce cadre, l'un des aspects les plus problématiques et les plus actuels de la profession est lié aux enjeux de la formation des praticiens du conseil en orientation. Cet article décrit les dimensions pédagogiques des programmes

Based on a qualitative, interview-based study of friendship, this article examines the specificity of 'domestic friendships' between women. Forged from the particular experiences, emotions and challenges of motherhood, they are qualitatively different from most friendships which tend to be based on individualistic connection and selfexpression. Domestic friendships facilitate a specific form of 'inclusive intimacy' and shape an expansive experience of domestic life beyond the family or household. They help shape mothers' sense of self as profoundly relational and interconnected with others, and channel a sense of biographical selfhood whose form and temporality is tied firmly to others' lives.

Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to explore the notion of decolonizing interpretive research in ways that respect and integrate the qualitative sensibilities of subaltern voices in the knowledge production of anti-colonial possibilities. Design/methodology/approach-The paper draws from the decolonizing and post-colonial theoretical tradition, with a specific reference to Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak's contribution to this analysis. Findings-Through a critical discussion of decolonizing concerns tied to qualitative interpretive interrogations, the paper points to the key assumptions that support and reinforce the sensibilities of subaltern voices in efforts to move western research approaches toward anti-colonial possibilities. In the process, this discussion supports the emergence of an itinerant epistemological lens that opens the field to decolonizing inquiry. Practical implications-Its practical implications are tied to discursive transformations, which can impact social and material transformations within the context of research and society. Originality/value-Moreover, the paper provides an innovative rethinking of interpretive research, in an effort to extend the analysis of decolonizing methodology to the construction of subaltern inspired intellectual labor.

Of Books, Barns, and Boardrooms: Exploring Praxis through Reflexive Inquiry is at once scholarly and deeply personal. A rich weave of learning moments across multiple contexts-- formal education, workplace learning, relationships with horses--this text explores the various ways that pedagogy and practice emerge with and through our lived experiences. Centring the metaphor of join-up, a relational approach to starting new horses, the book intertwines educational theory with storied experience to uncover opportunities for cultivating collaborative spaces born of trust, deep communication, agency, and relationality. A highly readable text, Of Books, Barns, and Boardrooms models reflexive inquiry as a way of being while inviting us to imagine possibilities for re/humanizing teaching and learning.

We describe our decision points to disclose parts of our personal selves while building trust with vulnerable populations in schools during ethnographic studies. Finding how our subjective identities were similar to and different than those of our participants helped us to better understand the participants' lives. We argue in this article that the introspection created by negotiating subjectivities in our contrasting examples of intersectionality taught us more about structural inequality in schools than we learned via ethnographic data collection methods alone.

Alterity is a concept with an extensive yet elusive history. Popularly conceived of as radical difference and Otherness, I identify alterity as the source of much of the virulent forms of racism, sexism, islamophobia, and other dichotomies in society that pit one group against another. Coming out of the tradition of critical qualitative inquiry, I offer a genealogy of the concept of alterity through various contexts and disciplines with a focus on its use in traditional Western philosophy. Within this tradition, the alteric relationship between the Self and the Other was typified by a preeminence bestowed upon the Self and an adversarial, totalizing posture taken toward the Other. Relying on a hermeneutic methodology, I theorize the development of alterity within this tradition as the root of the Eurocentric project of hegemony and subjugation that has culminated in and solidified White supremacy and that manifest today as Trump era articulations of racism and nativism in American society. Detailing the early twentieth century postmodern turn in Western philosophy which rehabilitated the Other from the tyranny of the Self, I use that history as a model for reclaiming the racial, cultural, and religious Others that continue to be marginalized throughout American society. Enlisting the notion of borderlands from border pedagogy, the ethics of care of Emmanuel Levinas, and the tenets of critical qualitative inquiry, I argue for a deliberate and focused project of activist research and critical pedagogy to not only rehabilitate and give voice to marginalized groups but to also deterritorialize the borderlands between the Self of White society and those who have been Othered by White society. Keywords Alterity • Otherness • Phenomenology • Emmanuel Levinas • Ethics of care Resumo La alteridad es un concepto con una historia extensa pero esquiva. Popularmente se ha concebido como diferencia radical y otredad, pero yo identifico la alteridad como la fuente de muchas de las formas virulentas de racismo, sexismo, islamofobia y otras dicotomías en la sociedad que enfrentan a un grupo con otro. Partiendo de la tradición de la inves

In this paper, the author discusses the qualitative shift in educational research from a historical dependence on positivist and post-positivist frameworks to a proliferation of research situated within a qualitative, interpretivist paradigm. Offering a Canadian perspective, the author situates the discussion of critical qualitative research in relation to the growing neoliberal influence on educational contexts and policy decisions. She argues the need for educational researchers to conduct critical qualitative research to explore the complex issues that educators face to ensure that all students have access to equitable educational experiences, not only those students who represent the Canadian dominant white, middle-class norm. The author introduces a strand of qualitative research focused on the experiences of black, racialized and Indigenous students to illustrate the need for critical research that privileges local knowledge and human experience, while also taking into account...

This article examines South-South relations by exploring the South American experience. Emerging from the rise in leftist political movements at the turn of the millennium, the region engaged in a broad range of initiatives to address economic and security concerns. By excluding the influence of the United States and international financial institutions, South America opened space for economic policies and conflict-resolution strategies that otherwise would never have been considered. Despite the value of South-South relations, this trend has attracted little scholarly attention. Yet, this study finds that this unique set of alliances played a crucial role in reestablishing relations between Colombia and Venezuela (2008-2010), resolving Argentina's financial crisis (2003-2007), and ending over 50 years of civil war in Colombia (1964-2016). Even more ambitiously, this study develops an innovative theoretical framework called post-hegemonic regionalization. This new framework is necessary because traditional theories have not kept pace with South-South relations and thus yield little insight into South America. This study, therefore, fills an important gap in the literature. It offers compelling and rich accounts of unfamiliar yet crucial events in South American politics and addresses a theoretical deficiency.

In the past decades, parents have used online forums to discuss challenges associated with parenthood, seeking support from other parents as well as professional advice. A highly sensitive topic discussed in these forums is regret about having children. Previous studies from various contexts have highlighted how regret, as expressed online, is often connected to difficulties of living up to and identifying with ideals of parenting, and that parenthood leads to feelings of exhaustion, entrapment and a negative self-image. In this article, I analyze how regret is expressed in two major Swedish online forums, including accounts from 142 parents. Sweden is a country that is often highlighted internationally as a pioneer in gender equality, with laws that protect sexual and reproductive rights and family- friendly policies that support parents in combining family life and work life. In light of this, I focus on the different decisions related to parenthood that people regret, the challenges and disappointments that family life has brought to parents, and the consequences that parenthood has had on their lives. I show how gender-equal parenting ideals are highly present in the discussions, and how they coexist and conflict with more traditional parenting behaviours and patterns.

This article examines South-South relations by exploring the South American experience. Emerging from the rise in leftist political movements at the turn of the millennium, the region engaged in a broad range of initiatives to address economic and security concerns. By excluding the influence of the United States and international financial institutions, South America opened space for economic policies and conflict-resolution strategies that otherwise would never have been considered. Despite the value of South-South relations, this trend has attracted little scholarly attention. Yet, this study finds that this unique set of alliances played a crucial role in reestablishing relations between Colombia and Venezuela (2008-2010), resolving Argentina's financial crisis (2003-2007), and ending over 50 years of civil war in Colombia (1964-2016). Even more ambitiously, this study develops an innovative theoretical framework called post-hegemonic regionalization. This new framework is necessary because traditional theories have not kept pace with South-South relations and thus yield little insight into South America. This study, therefore, fills an important gap in the literature. It offers compelling and rich accounts of unfamiliar yet crucial events in South American politics and addresses a theoretical deficiency.

We are in an era that calls for increasing “training” in educational research methodologies. When the National Research Council (2004) calls for training in educational research that is “rigorous” and “relevant,” the focus strongly emphasizes WHAT should be taught instead of WHO is being engaged in the learning. Similarly, most of the research on teaching educational inquiry explores the “what” and not the “who” of the learning. In contrast, we explore conceptualizations of “research” as expressed by graduate students in a research methodology course, as well as the way that student narratives illustrate their own identity claims in relation to research. We develop the analytical concept of “pragmatic fissures” to explain the tension often present between the way students conceptualize research and the way they perceive themselves in relation to the research process. We suggest that these pragmatic fissures provide an opportunity for expanding pedagogical approaches to course delive...

Spradley's developmental research sequence (DRS) has been used primarily for ethnographic studies. However, this ethnographic tool has been employed in case studies without an examination of the merits of its modification. In this article the authors discuss how adapting analytical steps of DRS to case studies can be methodologically advantageous. They found that transforming Spradley's ethnographic approach rendered it useful for articulating implicit conceptualizations in case studies, one from science education and the other from mathematics education. Investigating this issue will necessarily involve looking closely at the substantive aspects of the case studies themselves. Findings from the case studies and results from the methodological investigation are reported along with suggestions for future research.

This manuscript utilizes autoethnography as a critical race methodology. Specifically, the authors use generative autoethnographya collective spin-storyto illustrate how their past personal experiences are present in their current educational lives. This generative autoethnography fulfills CRT's tenets of: intercentricity of race and racism; challenging dominant Ideology; the commitment to social justice; the centrality of experiential knowledge; and interdisciplinary perspectives. We illustrate the dialectical relationship of our lived experiences in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Oakland, and how these experiences propel the educational work that we do, the voices we choose to lift up, and how we choose to lift them. Shared publicly, these stories further invite readers to critically reflect on their own personal experiences and social realities, continuing the generative praxis of autoethnography. In this way, autoethnography, like critical race method, is an analytic tool that fosters internal reflection, intra/intercultural compassion, and community activism.

We are in an era that calls for increasing “training” in educational research methodologies. When the National Research Council (2004) calls for training in educational research that is “rigorous” and “relevant,” the focus strongly emphasizes WHAT should be taught instead of WHO is being engaged in the learning. Similarly, most of the research on teaching educational inquiry explores the “what” and not the “who” of the learning. In contrast, we explore conceptualizations of “research” as expressed by graduate students in a research methodology course, as well as the way that student narratives illustrate their own identity claims in relation to research. We develop the analytical concept of “pragmatic fissures” to explain the tension often present between the way students conceptualize research and the way they perceive themselves in relation to the research process. We suggest that these pragmatic fissures provide an opportunity for expanding pedagogical approaches to course delive...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the notion of decolonizing interpretive research in ways that respect and integrate the qualitative sensibilities of subaltern voices in the knowledge production of anti-colonial possibilities. Design/methodology/approach The paper draws from the decolonizing and post-colonial theoretical tradition, with a specific reference to Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s contribution to this analysis. Findings Through a critical discussion of decolonizing concerns tied to qualitative interpretive interrogations, the paper points to the key assumptions that support and reinforce the sensibilities of subaltern voices in efforts to move western research approaches toward anti-colonial possibilities. In the process, this discussion supports the emergence of an itinerant epistemological lens that opens the field to decolonizing inquiry. Practical implications Its practical implications are tied to discursive transformations, which can impact social and ma...

Bioactive compound is secondary plant metabolites eliciting pharmacological or toxicological effects in man and animals. Legumes are valuable source of proteins and nutrients for the majority of the world population. Vigna mungo is one of the important legume crop extensively cultivated in India and other parts of the world. Pulses and legumes have been gaining interest because they are excellent source of bioactive compounds. Objective of this present review is to compile all relevant information published regarding bioactive components from the Vigna mungo. Various bioactive components reported in Vigna mungo were found and it includes flavonoids, isoflavonoids, phytoestrogens, phenolic acids, enzymes, fibres, starches, trypsin inhibitors, phytic acid, lectins, saponins, tocopherols, fatty acids and proteins. This review clearly demonstrates that Vigna mungo is rich in bioactive components and these components are located in various organs of the plant.

The teaching of research methods is common across multiple fields in the social and educational sciences for establishing evidence-based practices and furthering the knowledge base through scholarship. Yet, specific to mixed methods, scant information exists as to how to approach teaching complex concepts for meaningful learning experiences. Thus, the purpose of this mixed research study was to examine strategies used by selected U.S.based leading mixed methodologists in mixed research courses as related to significant learning goals for course design. In addition, we examined the extent that their philosophical stances influenced teaching and course objectives for student learning. Participants were 12 leading mixed methodologists who were instructors of mixed research courses from various institutions representing multiple conceptual stances applicable to the teaching of mixed research. Instructional practices are presented for instructors to consider when designing and teaching mixed research and general research methodology courses across disciplines.

Th is paper presents the respective but cooperative analyses of a lecturer and an academic development practitioner of a refl ective journal dialogue over the twelve weeks of teaching a postgraduate course. Th e paper explores the issues in framing the inquiry, the personal-professional nexus, and the tensions in distinguishing concepts and processes in teaching and the research on teaching.

The teaching of research methods is common across multiple fields in the social and educational sciences for establishing evidence-based practices and furthering the knowledge base through scholarship. Yet, specific to mixed methods, scant information exists as to how to approach teaching complex concepts for meaningful learning experiences. Thus, the purpose of this mixed research study was to examine strategies used by selected U.S.based leading mixed methodologists in mixed research courses as related to significant learning goals for course design. In addition, we examined the extent that their philosophical stances influenced teaching and course objectives for student learning. Participants were 12 leading mixed methodologists who were instructors of mixed research courses from various institutions representing multiple conceptual stances applicable to the teaching of mixed research. Instructional practices are presented for instructors to consider when designing and teaching mixed research and general research methodology courses across disciplines.

This article explores how five international colleagues from the USA, Canada, China, and Japan use self-study methodologies and online journaling to systematically examine the tensions surrounding the lived experiences of feminist academics in diverse global contexts. It draws from the theoretical foundations of critical qualitative inquiry, self-study, feminist epistemologies, and fiction as research. The main research questions guiding the study are: what is the role of self-study and journaling in an international research collective?, how can contemporary literature inform a self-study about the intersection of gender and career?, and in what ways does journaling with international partners support personal and professional development of multicultural teacher educators?. For 6 months, the authors explored these questions with one another in an interactive online journal. Collaborative analysis of the journal entries produced three major themes: fiction as self-study, scholarship as hope, and scholarship as freedom. The article concludes with the authors’ personal views on the importance of online journaling and self-study among educational researchers who are interested in finding tools and structures for navigating the contemporary women’s movement within academia.

It is easy to feel small, powerless, and unable to spark any sort of change. Being only one person among billions can seem overwhelming indeed. So much is completely beyond our control. There are only a limited set of decisions that people are able to make in life, generally speaking. Given the circumstances, however, there are even fewer decisions that folks will be able to make from here. Of the choices that remain, one involves whether or not we choose to engage in a shared and collaborative practice—of whether or not we are committed to the people in our lives, to the people on this planet, and to the other forms of life on Earth. As such, this is a book about survival in the face of mass extinctions, including those of the academic type. This is a book about ethical research practices, about simple truths, about the commitments we initially made to this work, and about how we might better support each other along the way. Most importantly, this is a book about finding and making our own communities. Communities do not belong to any one person or small group of people. Rather, communities—genuine, real, and vibrant communities—belong to us all. This is a book about how.

Beginning from notion that self is constructed, contributors in this collection are particularly interested in how relationships with place inform identity development. Locating identity inquiry in methodologies that encourage an explicit examination of self (e.g. autoethnography, self-study, autobiographical inquiry, a/r/tography, and reflexive inquiry), authors situate themselves epistemologically and geographically as they explore where place and identity converge. Through critical, qualitative, creative, and arts-integrated approaches, this collection aims to advance thought regarding the myriad ways that place informs identity development.

Drawing on Applebaum’s theory of White Complicity, this paper considers how white researchers remain complicit in the reproduction of whiteness despite our intentions of disrupting its hegemonic nature. I reflect on a recent qualitative investigation on white college students’ understandings of race and whiteness and offer three reflexive considerations for white researchers: creating contexts for racial comfort, unintentionally validating racist beliefs, and missed opportunities for educational interventions. In doing so I move beyond simplistic, reflective accounts of researcher identity and work towards a more vigilant, reflexive understanding of the white researcher in relation to our white participants. The paper should assist white scholars who seek to remain vigilant in reflecting on their own complicity in white supremacy, despite our scholarly intentions.

This article explores how five international colleagues from the USA,
Canada, China, and Japan use self-study methodologies and online
journaling to systematically examine the tensions surrounding the
lived experiences of feminist academics in diverse global contexts. It
draws from the theoretical foundations of critical qualitative inquiry,
self-study, feminist epistemologies, and fiction as research. The
main research questions guiding the study are: what is the role of
self-study and journaling in an international research collective?,
how can contemporary literature inform a self-study about the
intersection of gender and career?, and in what ways does journaling
with international partners support personal and professional
development of multicultural teacher educators?. For 6 months, the
authors explored these questions with one another in an interactive
online journal. Collaborative analysis of the journal entries produced
three major themes: fiction as self-study, scholarship as
hope, and scholarship as freedom. The article concludes with the
authors’ personal views on the importance of online journaling and
self-study among educational researchers who are interested in
finding tools and structures for navigating the contemporary
women’s movement within academia.

There are many ways to frame how and why we go about research, particularly when it comes to unsettling traditions. From the beginning of our studies, we can be encouraged (or even required) to situate our contributions within gaps, or deficits, in the existing literature. This teaches us to launch our work on the limitations of others. As an alternative, I wonder how scholarship might turn on its own merits, instead. I suggest that care and gratitude offer two important possibilities.

The mothering ideology that normalizes constant competition between mothers, especially in terms of parenting philosophies, practices, and choices, is termed combative mothering. Combative mothering manifests discursively through the metaphor of the mommy wars, which has previously described antagonisms between working and stay-at-home mothers, but more recently has shifted to describe animus between myriad parenting philosophies and practices. In this article, we engaged in a feminist critique to identify how 30 mommy bloggers make sense of the origins of, and solutions to, the mommy wars. This sensemaking, we contend, lends important critical insight into powerful cultural constructions of individual mothers as responsible for the creating, sustaining , and ultimately resolving the mommy wars.

Aim: Our aim is to offer and illustrates a novel meta-methodology to enhance the rigour of method selection and understanding of results in pluralist qualitative research (PQR).
Method: To do so, we make innovative use of Braun and Clarke’s (2006) articulation of four discrete dimensions characterising different forms of thematic analysis. We provide secondary analyses of an interview from the Social Media, Men who have Sex with Men and Sexual Health project using critical discursive psychology, dialogical analysis, interpretative phenomenological analysis, and psychosocial narrative analysis.
Results: All four methods identified aspects of three central foci: Compartmentalisation, Detachment, and Jouissance.
Conclusion: We discuss how our proposed meta-methodology provides a rationale for the selection of methods in a PQR, offer evidence that it can anticipate the relative similarity in focus of the methods employed, and argue that our meta-methodology reveals the possibility of identifying an ‘axial’ or ‘hub’ method’ of a PQR which might be particularly fruitful in exploring commonalities and differences in results. Finally, we examine the synergies and challenges of combining pairs of the methods we used.

In the move toward a critical form of qualitative inquiry that realizes its transformative potential, this article encourages scholars to consider axes of need within research. A flexible framework suggests how researchers might respond to situated need through theoretically and con-textually grounded inquiries. In first drawing from critical geography, the concepts of heterotopic space and spatial justice are used to theoretically explore potential sites of critical transformation. These fluid spaces next are situated along five possible axes of need: food, water, shelter, justice, and love. By way of illustration, axes then are read through the lens of an urban city; potential responses take shape as a research agenda that could include visual and experimental forms of mapping. Importantly, the framework offers methodological openings for a critical form of qualitative inquiry that directly responds to, and participates in, issues of local need.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the notion of decolonizing interpretive research in ways that respect and integrate the qualitative sensibilities of subaltern voices in the knowledge production of anti-colonial possibilities.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws from the decolonizing and post-colonial theoretical tradition, with a specific reference to Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s contribution to this analysis. Findings – Through a critical discussion of decolonizing concerns tied to qualitative interpretive interrogations, the paper points to the key assumptions that support and reinforce the sensibilities of subaltern voices in efforts to move western research approaches toward anti-colonial possibilities. In the process, this discussion supports the emergence of an itinerant epistemological lens that opens the field to decolonizing inquiry.
Practical implications – Its practical implications are tied to discursive transformations, which can impact social and material transformations within the context of research and society.
Originality/value – Moreover, the paper provides an innovative rethinking of interpretive research, in an effort to extend the analysis of decolonizing methodology to the construction of subaltern inspired intellectual labor.
Keywords Interpretive research, Post-colonial, Decolonizing, Knowledge production, Subaltern voice

Of Books, Barns, and Boardrooms: Exploring Praxis through Reflexive Inquiry is an engaging and accessible book that is at once scholarly and personal. Dr. Ellyn Lyle explores how self intersects with pedagogy and education in three separate but connected contexts: formal education, horse training (joining-up), and workplace learning. She begins with a narrative of how she learned about reflexive inquiry; from that foundation, she questions how educational systems can both debilitate and inspire, using her own life story and explaining how theories relate to practice. In so doing, Lyle is informative and invitational, providing a model for educators to problematize their own contexts. Most interesting is how she uses the concept of joining-up, not training, when exploring her work with horses. This transferable concept requires educators and learners to communicate, build reciprocal relationships, work towards understanding, engage in meaning-making, and interact with others through mutual respect. Educators in all contexts would benefit from reading this book, and I will be recommending it to my students.  – Dr. Nancy Taber, Brock University

Ellyn Lyle uses the successful, deep communication with horses, a process called “Join-Up,” as a lyrical and practical metaphor for negotiating learning in multiple contexts. A fascinating personal story, Of Books, Barns, and Boardrooms is also an invaluable guidebook for learning, teaching, and questioning: for parents, teachers, students, administrators, and entrepreneurs. I am urged to consider where learning and systems fail and, also, to celebrate how “life is my classroom, and all encounters, my teachers” (p.xxx). I wish I had had these insights and inspiring analogies at hand when I was a university professor and president. — Dr. Elizabeth R. Epperly, Professor Emerita and Past President, University of Prince Edward Island


When I “Join-Up” with Ellyn Lyle’s philosophical inquiry, I experience a process of deep trust and listening that she suggests is the basis of authentic learning. Of Books, Barns, and Boardrooms, about learners and learning, is a critical and creative inquiry that questions and challenges practices that prevent learning. It is a way of doing philosophy, a method of (re)constructing narrative to examine some of the metaphors that shape and inform concepts, biases, and assumptions. Using her understanding of join-up to identify problems that prohibit growth, the author constructs a compelling story of change and invites readers to do the same. —Dr. Anne-Louise Brookes, Author, Feminist Pedagogy: An Autobiographical Approach.

Dr. Ellyn Lyle takes readers on an inspirational journey celebrating learning and teaching as a shared and respectful partnership—one that values the breadth of life’s experiences as sources of knowledge. —Dr. Debra Manning, Federation University Australia

We are in an era that calls for increasing "training" in educational research methodologies. When the National Research Council (2004) calls for training in educational research that is "rigorous" and "relevant," the focus strongly emphasizes WHAT should be taught instead of WHO is being engaged in the learning. Similarly, most of the research on teaching educational inquiry explores the "what" and not the "who" of the learning. In contrast, we explore conceptualizations of "research" as expressed by graduate students in a research methodology course, as well as the way that student narratives illustrate their own identity claims in relation to research. We develop the analytical concept of "pragmatic fissures" to explain the tension often present between the way students conceptualize research and the way they perceive themselves in relation to the research process. We suggest that these pragmatic fissures provide an opportunity for expanding pedagogical approaches to course delivery, as well as approaches to methodology textbook design. In the spirit of post-perspectives aimed at challenging the "methods" approach to research learning (St. Pierre, 2014), we welcome an opportunity for thinking about research instruction as more locally and organically connected to the lived experiences and conceptual make-up of students engaged in the learning process.

Action research design blurs the traditional distinction between researchers and practitioners, and effectively shortens the distance of the transformation from academic findings to daily practices. This research case features a critical action research project that focused on understanding graduate students’ perception of and how they position themselves in relation to “research.” We demonstrate how this research design manifests in the form of collaboration among four co-researchers/practitioners and highlights methodological and practical insights and challenges that we face at the intersection of action research and collaborative research. Findings from the study reveal the tension between the way students conceptualize research and the way they perceive themselves in relation to the research process, which we describe as “pragmatic fissures”. Our findings provide an opportunity for expanding pedagogical approaches to course delivery as well as developing innovative methodology textbook designs, echoing the emphasis of praxis in action research.

Qualitative data analysis software (QDAS) has become increasingly popular among researchers. However, very few discussions have developed regarding the effect of QDAS on the validity of qualitative data analysis. It is a pressing issue, especially because the recent proliferation of conceptualizations of validity has challenged, and to some degree undermined, the taken-for-granted connection between the methodologically neutral understanding of validity and QDAS. This article suggests an alternative framework for examining the relationship between validity and the use of QDAS. Shifting the analytic focus from instrumentality and efficiency of QDAS to the research practice itself, we propose that qualitative researchers should formulate a "reflective space" at the intersection of their methodological approach, the built-in validity structure of QDAS and the specific research context, in order to make deliberative and reflective methodological decisions. We illustrate this new framework through discussion of a collaborative action research project.